A city of around 400,000 people who jump into doorways and under tables on a regular basis. Toilets are often holes in the ground, and portable toilets are present on many streets. Sometimes one can see crap swimming down rivers to the sea. This is because so many of its residents shit themselves every time there is another earthquake. There is no central city any more - it all fell down. Brick chimneys and unreinforced brick walls are to be avoided. So are tall buildings, hills and cliff faces. February 22 2011 was the shakiest day yet.

The largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, once used rather frequently by housewives and grandmothers as a mild expletive being roughly equivalent to gosh or darn.

While definitely not averse to using such words as fuck and cunt, modern New Zealanders take great delight in reliving the stultifying drudgery of the 1950s and will often be heard to utter (at least ironically) the phrase "Oh, Christchurch!", especially when tripping up, falling over, climaxing, etc.